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The Aventador video is an excellent demonstration of how much difference driver skill makes in an ICE. He has pretty slow shifts and didn't drop the clutch at nearly enough RPMs for an optimal launch. Of course, when you own a car instead of write reviews for car magazines, you are more reluctant to do all-out launches. Probably cost a half second of 0-60 time, though. Interesting to note that he doesn't really start to pull away until he is pretty deep in third gear, so he's way over 60 by then.

The Aventador video is an excellent demonstration of how much difference driver skill makes in an ICE. He has pretty slow shifts and didn't drop the clutch at nearly enough RPMs for an optimal launch. Of course, when you own a car instead of write reviews for car magazines, you are more reluctant to do all-out launches. Probably cost a half second of 0-60 time, though. Interesting to note that he doesn't really start to pull away until he is pretty deep in third gear, so he's way over 60 by then.

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Umm... That's a Lamborghini Aventador, right? With the 7 speed "semi-automatic" transmission and electronically controlled clutch that AFAIK is the only transmission option for that model?

There may be a "launch mode" that the driver failed to engage, and he might have chosen shift points poorly (not saying he did, just that he could have) - but I don't think he has any control of the rate of shifting (Wikipedia claims it shifts in 50 milliseconds) and he may not have had much choice about how high to rev the engine.
Walter

I would have to do some comparisons with my 14 aventador roadster & 15 McLaren 650s Spider. Both my cars have exhaust so little more HP then stock. For sure my 14 Bentley GTC Speed is faster then my P85+ but it wont hang with the P85D. At least now I will have 4 cars in the garage with min of 625hp to over 700hp.

The Aventador video is an excellent demonstration of how much difference driver skill makes in an ICE. He has pretty slow shifts and didn't drop the clutch at nearly enough RPMs for an optimal launch. Of course, when you own a car instead of write reviews for car magazines, you are more reluctant to do all-out launches. Probably cost a half second of 0-60 time, though. Interesting to note that he doesn't really start to pull away until he is pretty deep in third gear, so he's way over 60 by then.

Umm... That's a Lamborghini Aventador, right? With the 7 speed "semi-automatic" transmission and electronically controlled clutch that AFAIK is the only transmission option for that model?

There may be a "launch mode" that the driver failed to engage, and he might have chosen shift points poorly (not saying he did, just that he could have) - but I don't think he has any control of the rate of shifting (Wikipedia claims it shifts in 50 milliseconds) and he may not have had much choice about how high to rev the engine.
Walter

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The owner of both cars posts here.

His write up of the details is included with the YouTube video. Here's what he had to say:

--Published on Dec 23, 2014Ever wonder if a 691-hp Tesla can beat a 691-hp Lamborghini in a drag race? I did. So I raced my new Tesla Model S P85D against my Lamborghini Aventador.

First impression: That 0-50 acceleration from the Tesla is insane. I had a feeling that it was faster than the Aventador from 0-50, because I never felt that kind of pressure on my chest before from accelerating. With the Tesla, it felt like a 50-lb person was laying flat on your face and chest and stays that way for a few seconds. The way the Aventador feels is like being a boat on strong waves and you keep rocking back and forth between the gear shifts. And at each gear shift, you feel like you're being tugged very heavily or kicked in the back from behind (depending on how you want to view it). The Tesla felt more like you're being dropped from the second floor but you're falling horizontally and not vertically. They're two completely different feelings of acceleration. What's amazing is that the Tesla kept up with the Aventador all the way up to around 80 mph, which is probably the highest you'd want to go anyway if you wanted to keep your driving legal.

The race setup: To keep it a fair fight, I did not engage Thrust Mode on the Lamborghini Aventador, which is where you drop the clutch in at 4,500 RPM from neutral. My new Tesla only had 44 miles on the dash when this race started, so it might not have been broken in yet (though I don't think it needed to be). You might have also noticed that Tesla was in the standard suspension setting and not the lowered one. For some reason, the suspension kept returning to "standard" from "low" after a certain mph (will look into this later). Still, this became a very close race, and I was surprised to see the Tesla accelerating faster than the Aventador, a modern-day, top-of-the-line Italian supercar.

Analysis: Off the line, it does appear that the Tesla can accelerate faster than the Aventador from 0-50 mph (1st gear on the Aventador). And then from 50-80 mph (2nd gear on the Aventador), the two cars appeared to be traveling at the same speed. But after the gear change at 80 mph to 3rd gear, it was very obvious that the Aventador was accelerating faster than the Tesla, and the Tesla couldn't keep up anymore.

I'm actually curious how it would work out in Thrust Mode. Being able to do a clutch drop is one of the few advantages of a classic drivetrain by comparison - but it's also central to the measured 0-60 times in magazines and the like. The numbers say the Lambo should be a little bit faster with the launch mode, on paper.
Walter

I would have to do some comparisons with my 14 aventador roadster & 15 McLaren 650s Spider. Both my cars have exhaust so little more HP then stock. For sure my 14 Bentley GTC Speed is faster then my P85+ but it wont hang with the P85D. At least now I will have 4 cars in the garage with min of 625hp to over 700hp.

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Are we compensating for an Adam Levine singing voice? :biggrin:

Early congrats on the new car, and on the very manly Tim The Toolman Taylor garage!

The Aventador was driven in Sports Mode in Automatic. Shift points were optimal at 8,500 RPM, right before the red line. The car electronically was shifting and therefore, there were no driver errors at play.

It is true that the most optimal launch and race settings would be to put the Aventador in launch mode and Corsa mode and take off traction control. I plan on redoing the match with those settings. This is the first time I ever had to do that to win a race. The Aventador normally wins without launch control.

Secondly, and most importantly, P85D thrust is front loaded to a large degree, I seriously doubt that there is **anything** on the road today which can beat P85D 0 to 30 mph. If you watch all videos of P85D vs. two seat exotics that beat it, in every one of them P85D got ahead 1 to 2 car length out of the gate with exotics catching up later. The fact that RS7 gaining lead on P85D right from the start is a major giveaway that something is wrong with this video.

Secondly, and most importantly, P85D thrust is front loaded to a large degree, I seriously doubt that there is **anything** on the road today which can beat P85D 0 to 30 mph. If you watch all videos of P85D vs. two seat exotics that beat it, in every one of them P85D got ahead 1 to 2 car length out of the gate with exotics catching up later. The fact that RS7 gaining lead on P85D right from the start is a major giveaway that something is wrong with this video.

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The Tesla P85D has been recorded at 3.12 which is lower than Dragtimes 3.17, and motortrend has the porsche 918 at 1.2 sec 0-30, while the P85D does 0-33mph in 1.2 seconds. So I don't think there's any production 4 door thats faster 0-30 than the P85D.

I hope they show a video of the Tesla at higher charge, since its clearly not at its best.

1)Probably not even trying
2)Probably not a P or a D (though it does have 22" rims)
3)Probably low SOC
4)Maybe souped up RS7 (do the kids still say "souped up"?)

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It doesn't matter how souped up the RS7 was or could have been. The P85D 0-30 is faster than the 918 Spider which does 0-60 in 2.2 seconds. In every single one of these drags, the P85D always has the initial jump no matter what even when it's finally pulled on. This either wasn't a P85D or it was staged. The excuse the driver didn't know he was racing doesn't fly as he came to a dead stop in the middle of the road rather than at a signal or stop sign.

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